The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-02-04

horseback at full gallop. Where is he
goingl To destroy all Christians. He
wants no better play-spell than to stand and
watch the hats and coats of the murderers
who are massacreing Gods children. There
goes tie same man This time he is afOok
Where is he going now4 Going on the road
TO Ostia to die for Christ They tried to
SEhlp # out of him; they tried to scare
it out Of him; they thought they
would give him enough OF 1t
by putting hIm into wiRdowless dungeon,
and keeping him on small diet, and deny
ing h1n a cloak, and condemning him as a
criminal and howling at hTm through the
street. But they toHhd not freeze it out OF
him, and they could not sweat it out OF
him, and they could not pouha It cut OF
him, so they tried the surgery Of thsAWordt
and one summer day in 66 he was decaP-S
tated. Perhaps the mightiest intellect of
the 5000 years of the worlds existence was
hoodwinked, cheated, cajoled, duped by
the Christian religion.
Ah that is the remarkable thing about
tins deltsiOEf Of Christianity, it overpowers
the strongest futeNects. Gather the crit
les, secular and religious, of this country
tosether, and put a vote to them as to
which is She greatest book ever written,
and by a large majority they VIII say
PARADISE Lost" Who wrote Paradise
Ljost2' One of the fools tbRt believed In
this Bible John Milton.
Ben jamin Ffsnklin surrendered to thls
delusion, if4gou may Judge from the letter
he wrote to Thomas Paine, begging him to
destroy the "Age of Reason in mana
script and never let it go into type, and
writing afterward, in his old days: "Of
this Jesus of Nazareth l have to say that
kRS system Of morals He left and the reH
Tgfon Ne gave as are the best things the
world has ever seen OF is likely to see"
Patrick Henry, the electric champion Of
liberty, was enslaved by this delusiOn, so
that he says! ''Fhe book worth all other
books put together is the Bible"
Benjamin Rush, the leading physiologist
and anatomist of his day, the great medical
scf6nbist-what did he says THE only
true and perfee4 religion is Christianity"
Isaac Newton, the leading philosopher Of
his time-what did he say9 That man, sur
rendering to this delusion of the Christian
religion, cried out: 1.-THE sublimest phi
losophy on earth is the philosophy Of the
Gospel"
David Brewster, at the pronunciation of
whose name every scientist the world over
bows his head-David Brewster SAID: 20,
this religion has been great light to me,
a very great iigbt all my days"
President Thiers the great French
statesman, Acknowledged that he prayed
when he said: 81 invoke the Lord God in
whom I am g1aa TO believe.'
DAYlQ L1VlngSJOu6, apho 70 COu4uot Jig
lion, able to conquer the panther able to
con4ret the savage, yet conquered by this
delusion, this hallucihation, this great
swindle of the ages, SO tgher they fRd him
dead they find him on his knees.
William E. Gladstone, the strongest m
tellect in England to-day, unable to resist
this chimera. this fallacy, this delusion of
the Christian religion, goes to the house OF
| God every Sabbath and often, at the invi-
/ 4o4;oJr Of the y-aof1F- reads the DraVerS to
/ tEe people.
o, if those mighty intenects arc over
borne by this d5lusion, what chance i'd
there for you and for me?
Besides that, 1 have noticed that first
rate IL haels can not be depended on for
steadfastness III tie proclamation Of their
! sentiments. Goethe, a Iesding skeptic,
was so wrought upon by this Christianity
/ that in weak moment he cried out: 'ti1y
! belief in the Bible has saved me in my
! literary and moral life.''
! Rousseau, one of the most eloquent
champions Of infiiehty, spending his whole
| life warning against Christianity, cries
| out! 1.-THE majesty Of the Scriptures
amazes me-"
Altamont, the notorious fTfdel-one
would think he would be safe against this
delusion of the Christian religion. Oh, no.
After talking against Christianity all his
days In the last hour of his life he cried
out: t'Oh, Thou blasphemed but most in
dulgent Lord God, hell itself is a refuge if
it hide uie from Thy frownf'
Voltaire, the most talented in6del the
world ever saw, writing two hundred and
fifty publications, and the most Of them
spiteftIl against Christianity, himself the
most notorious 1ibeEtine Of the country
one would have thought he could have
| been depended upon for steadfastness in
! the advocacy of intidelity and in the war
! ~ NnHWw WwnEI
of the GospeL But noi in his last hour he
asks for Chistian burial, RHl asks that they
| give him the sacrament of the L0fd Jesus
! Christ.
Why, you can not depend upon these
| ffst-rate infldels-you can not depend upon
! their poR5Ar to resist this great delusion OF
! Christianity. Thomas PSiue, the god OF
! modern skeptics, his birthday celebrated
! In New York ard Boston with great en-
| thusiasm-Thomad Paine; the paragon OF
! Bible haters; Thomas Pajnes about whom
/ his brother inh1el, William Carver, wrote,
! in letter which l have at my house, say
ing that he drank & quart Of rum day
and was too mean and tod dishonest to
pay for it; Thomas Paine, the adored
! of modern infidelity; Thomas Paine who
stole another mans wife in England and
| brought her to this land; Thomas Paine,
who was so squalid, and go leatbsome, and
so drunken, and so prohigate, and 60 beast
ly in his habits, sometimes picked out OF
the ditch, sometimes too filthy to be picked
out; Thomas Paine one would have
thought that he could have been depended
on for steadfastness against this great de-
lusiOn. But no. In his dying hour he begs
the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy.
Powerful delusion, a1l-conqu ering delu-
sion, earthquaking delusion of the Chris
tian religion. Yea, it goes on, it is 80 i'm
pertinent, and it is so over bearing, this Chi
mera of the Gospel, that having conquered
the great picture galleries of the world,
the old masters and the young mas ters, as
] showed in former Sc rmon, it is not sat
isfied until it has conquered the music Of
the world. Look over the programme of
that magnificent musical festival a few
| years ago in New York and see what were
the great performances, and learn that the
! greatest of all the subjects were
religious subjects. What was it one night
when three thousand voices were accom-
panied with vast number Of Instruments 2
Israel in Egypt" Yes, Beethoven de-
luded until he wrote the high mass in D
major. Haydn deluded with this religion
until he wrote the Creation" Handel de-
luded until he wrote the oratorios: "Jeph-
thah," and Esther" and Saul" and
Israel in Egypt" and the a. Messiah" On
the closing night 8, 600 deluded people sing
ing of a delusion TO eight thousand deluded
hearers.
Yes, this chimera OF the Gospel 8 not
satisfied until it goes on and builds itself
into the most permanent architecture, so
it seems as IL the world is never going to
get rid of it. What are some of the finest
buildings in the worlds st. PauI's, ST.
Peters, the churches and cathedrals Of ali
ChrIstendom- Yes, this impertinence Of
the Gospel this vast delusion, is not salts
fed until it projects itself, and in one year
gives, contributes, sc, 10000 to foreign
missions, the work of which is 70
make ounces and fools on the other
side Of the world-people we have